Scheduling errors cause arise in the student body

This year there seems to be more conflicts with student schedule’s than ever before. New Student Scheduler, Rebecca Sosalla is dealing with these errors the best way she can, but having a 33 year old system doesn’t give her much help.

“The system we have for scheduling was written in 1983. The old system is the best option we have right now,” Sosalla said, “there have been four attempts so far to write a new program and none of them have worked yet.”

The school is currently working with a team down at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) on writing another program and so far they are doing well.

“I am more hopeful now than I was a year ago about the possibility that it might work. If it works, it will potentially be able to handle the limits that we put on it better than our current system,” Sosalla said.

Not only is the old system an issue, but so is the amount of new opportunities that are being offered for the students at Westside.

“We have added so many new classes with new structures, with fantastic opportunities for our students, that we are stretching modular scheduling to it’s limits,” Sosalla said. “This new program, if it works, will potentially be able to handle those limits.”

The school is very hopeful that the fifth attempt to write a new system will work out and there will hopefully be less conflicts in student scheduling in the future. For now, Sosalla and the counselors are working hard to make everyone’s schedules right.

“Between the last day of finals and and these past two days, I would estimate that I have fixed around 250-300 schedules,” Sosalla said. “Being the new girl makes it a little more challenging as well. It’s not something you can just pick up and learn. It’s a process that takes time to learn.”